Author: Danica Novgorodoff
Color by Hilary Sycamore
Publisher: First Second, 144 pages.
Copyright: 2009
Summary:
Plot: Three teenagers in rural Oregon are affected by the war going on abroad.
Major Characters: Josh, Cody, and Gordon
Major Subjects: Graphic Novel, Military Families
VOYA Review:
he title of this graphic novel comes from the act of refreshing an e-mail inbox often to see if anyone has replied, in this case, teens' fathers who have gone off to Iraq to fight in the war. Cody, Josh, and Jordan miss their dads and stay busy by beating each other up in the back yard (to make themselves stronger), hang out at the local bar and drink alcohol, hook up with older women, and participate in a slew of other activities that are pretty risky but make sense, feeling left behind. Of the three, Josh's future looks the least bleak as he receives an acceptance letter to college. The story is well drawn, with the damage from the fight scenes among the teens evidenced in painful black eyes and blood. The day-to-day living is also painful when the power has been shut off because the bills are not being paid. Although the story is never really upbeat, it will probably ring familiar to readers whose parents have gone off to fight in the war or are simply absent for various other reasons. It is a good book for discussion as it touches on tough topics with which many teens may be wrestling, whether or not their parents play a large role in their lives. Reviewer: Kelly Czarnecki
Review:
Refresh, Refresh is a graphic novel that follows three teen boys (Josh, Cody, and Gordon) all struggling with the loss of their fathers who are soldiers in Iraq. They continuously click "refresh" on their computers, hoping for emails from their dads. Their frustration and rage grows and festers to the point where they can not contain it and look for ways to vent. They do this in largely unhealthy ways. The book is disturbing in its depiction of all of these things and requires a mature reader. The bleakness of the rural Oregon landscape only makes the three boys more vulnerable and their behavior more troubling.
As their fathers fight in Iraq, the boys are beating each other up in their own backyards, drinking illegally in the local bar, and using rifles to hunt deer in the woods. Refresh, Refresh deals with a serious contemporary issue: the ramifications of war that we may not always see such as how the family left behind deals with another family member being away at war. It troubled me that there was no time to really take in the author's message. The characters and their stories are covered quickly and not explored in depth. The issues of families of soldiers struggling to survive financially, with loss, with loneliness, with rage, with having to take on additional roles, and with lack of information deserve our thought and consideration. Refresh, Refresh does not give the reader time to do this.
I also felt that the characters were not developed in any depth, which would have also helped to distinguish them. Overall, I thought this graphic novel was mediocre.
Reading Level: Beginner (for mature readers)
Notes about Audience: Recommended for ages 14 and up.
Other books by Danica Novgorodoff:
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